We hear it constantly, the focus on the "issues" of this year's campaign. There are even polls to help us know which are "the most important" issues for us to focus on and talk about. by Gary Wood
(conservative)
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
According to CNN's Issues Tracker here are our most important issues based on their poll;
35% - Economy
25% - Iraq
18% - Health Care
10% - Immigration
09% - Terrorism
02% - Other
Armed with this knowledge the campaigns, pundits, and voting audience can study, listen, and decide which of the candidates will do what to address the people's concerns. CNN lists a total of 17 issues, 12 making up the "Other" category in their polling numbers. Perform an Internet search on "campaign issues" and a plethora of very similar lists will come up. Got to any candidate's website, listen to their stump speeches, or tune in to what passes for a debate and there are the issues we are concerned about. Simply figure out where you stand on the issues, select the candidate most closely aligned with you and your vote is set.
In the last 36 years that I've been following political campaigns the issues list today eerily reminds me of the ghost of issues lists past. Terrorism is fairly new but Iraq can easily be interchanged with any number of military wars and conflicts. Even in the lowly 2% class of issues there lurking are old friends social security, taxes, gun control, education, and of course others. If our nation survives another 36 years I believe it will be safe to say the campaign issues listing will see little change from todays. Why? These are the issues political party machines want us to stay focused on. Keeping the debate on these types of issues allows a distraction from issues we should be talking about.
Here's my list of the top six issues;
Upholding the Oath of Office
Understanding the Constitution
Supportive of the Oligarchy or Not
Party politics vs. real representation of the people
Understanding the Job (not the career)
Embrace More or Less Federal Government
This is the foundation for the debate I'd like to moderate. There is a reason the campaign issues they focus on have only slightly changed over time, politicians are not interested in permanent solutions to the campaign issues. Our representatives we theoretically elect are, with few exceptions, part of the problem and not the solution. When will we ever get to the root issues? Until we do none of the others will ever be solved and this great nation will continue to evolve into a Socialistic Democracy.
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